Chronicle

How to Empower your Employees to Tell your Brand Story

Posted: 24 January 2019

Once upon a time, there was a really awesome company to work for…Where does your brand story start? Do you tell people how the company was founded? How it rose to success? Perhaps it should begin with your most valuable assets: your employees.

The essence of employer branding is best communicated by those who are living and breathing the experience every day. Employee experiences help to form connections with your audience – potential candidates – and engage with them on an emotional level.

Most importantly, using employees to tell your brand story makes your image more credible and authentic. People buy from people, and if you want candidates to buy into you as a desirable employer then you need to show your human side by sharing your employees’ perspectives.

If it’s a toss up between reading something on your career site or a real employee sharing their first-hand experience of what it’s like working for you, people are far more likely to trust an actual employee than some polished marketing spiel.

So, using your employees to sell you employer brand sounds great in principle, but how do you actually enable them to communicate your brand values and culture? Read on!

3 easy steps to help employees tell your brand story

To get your employees to start shouting about why you’re a great employer, you need to let them know a few key things:

1. Communicate your company culture

Every employee, whether a newbie or a veteran, must understand the company values, mission, vision and culture. If you aren’t clear on this, then you can’t expect anyone else within the business to be – least of all, your workforce!

Make it a priority to communicate these elements during your hiring process, on your career page or company website, and by setting expectations for behaviour and attitudes. In doing so, you’ll ensure your employees’ actions reflect your brand image.

2. Get social

As part of your employer brand strategy, plan in some social media posts involving your employees. Cover things like work outings, charity events, personal success stories, birthdays and work anniversaries – anything that shows some personality and culture.

Encourage employees to make suggestions for social posts too – they may come up with things you hadn’t thought of or weren’t aware of. They are a valuable resource for generating ideas and keeping you updated on goings on in their own department and role.

3. Set clear guidelines

Encourage employees to share personal experiences of their day-to-day jobs on social media, but within some clear parameters – set guidelines so that employees know the dos and don’ts and can post with confidence.

It doesn’t have to be too stuffy, just brief statements along the lines of ‘No swearing or offensive language’ or ‘Don’t share sensitive company information’. If anyone is unsure, have it as policy to check with their line manager to approve before posting.

Specify your preferred social platforms for employees to post on and let them know if there are any company- or industry-specific hashtags that you want them to include.

By putting your employees at the forefront of your employer brand strategy, it shows your business values its staff and favours a people-focused approach – something that is highly desirable to candidates when looking for a job.

Don’t just tell people why you’re a great business to work for: show them through the power of employee storytelling.

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